The States

Man's Best Friend(s)

2016

Ironically, it's winter when Kit gets Summer.

~~~~~~~~~

He's leaning against the kitchen counter when his eyes catch on Rose's old collar hanging up.

He sets his cup in the sink and grabs his car keys.

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He walks through the shelter, the volunteer babbling beside him.

Kit stops in front of a pen with a lone dog miserably sprawled on a blanket.

Across from her, a bunch of puppies is being fawned over by two teenagers.

The volunteer notices where his attention is. 

"That's Summer. You're familiar with Parvo?"

Kit nods. "Well, Summer here is a survivor. The problem is that parvo is expensive to treat. Her previous owner paid for the first round of treatment before abandoning her at the vet."

Summer's eyes are the same dark brown as chocolate and she's got him hooked with her puppy-dog eye routine.

"I'd like to adopt her."

The volunteer beams. 

~~~~~~~~~

Summer rides in the passenger seat on the way home, and she takes up over half the bed that night. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kit gets Rex seven months later. 

~~~~~~~~~

Mindy's hosts the meeting, and after it ends, she drags him into a pound to fill out the paperwork so she can adopt a cat that looks like it might actually be possessed. 

Kit thinks she did it on purpose because she knew he was thinking about another dog. 

Either way, the satan cat unnerves him a little, so he takes to wandering the aisles, taking the time to look in every crate. 

He stops dead in his tracks when he comes upon the pitbull. 

It's scarred and missing half an ear and several patches of fur and there are stitches in its face. 

Kit's throat tightens and he presses his hand against the kennel grate before whirling and going off to find an employee. 

~~~~~~~~~

By the time he's signed all the papers and paid all the fees, Mindy has called Anna, who shows up with a purple collar and a leash. 

The dog flinches away when Kit tries to clip the collar on, and he holds very still for a very long time before the dog allows him to do it. 

It takes a while for it to jump up into the car, but Kit doesn't want to scare it by picking it up. 

He digs Summer's car blanket out of the back seat and dumps it into the passenger. 

It's a soft blanket he got from the baby section of a department store, so it hopes the dog will like it. 

Twenty miles into the drive back home, the dog has squirmed under the blanket so only it's muzzle sticks out, and Kit smiles. 

~~~~~~~~~

He doesn't have to pick Summer up from the sitter until tomorrow which is probably a good idea because jesus, he adopted another dog and what if they don't like each other-

The dog is exploring very tentatively, sniffing at Summer's favorite spots like her bed and the loveseat and her toy basket. He'd wolfed down the food Kit had set out, which only made Kit notice how skinny he was compared to Flora's or Scarlett's pit bulls.

~~~~~~~~~

Summer is a ball of energy from the moment she barrels inside, which isn't unusual. 

What is unusual is the fact that she stops in the living room doorway with a confused look back at Kit.

Then she is bounding up to the armchair where the other dog is laying under one of Summer's numerous blankets and balancing her paws on the edge so she can see. 

They both sniff, and neither of them bark or try to attack each other, and Kit sighs in relief. 

~~~~~~~~~

Kit names him Rex three days later when he won't stop barking at the dinosaurs in the documentary he's watching.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kit's pretty sure the dog's dying or dead when he sees him on the side of the road, but he picks him up and sticks him in the car and drives to the vet anyway. 

~~~~~~~~~

He doesn't plan on adopting it. He paid the vet bill and that's enough for him right up until they tell him that they had to amputate the front right leg. 

Kit knows the statistics of dogs in shelters. 

And that's how he ends up with Bennett. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He sends Anna a picture a month later, with Rex in his lap and Summer laying on his feet and Bennett pressed against his side and she sends him a string of unintelligible emojis back.